Topic: Building a Better Boba: Greetings from Darklord

[Darklord1967]

Wow, what a great helmet. I know I echo all of the other sentiments, but that hemlet does look good. I can't wait to see how the rest works out. I must say I seem to recall a DarkLord that had a major vintage boxed collection that got water damage and that Darklord redid all of the boxes in a new type of vintage style I thought was just over the top. I probably do not have the right DarkLord, but welcome to the Yards!

Actually, you DO have the right "Darklord".  I am he!  I'm the lunatic that re-created the water-damaged boxes of my collection in custom vintage Kenner style. :grin:

Thanks so much for the kind words and the warm welcome everyone!  I'm really flattered!

[Darklord1967]

Okay, so following up on a PM’ed request, here is a comparison of custom Boba’s new helmet profile versus the original stock Hasbro helmet.



As you can see, the helmet’s upper crown is now an appropriate size when compared to the helmet base, but the operation resulted in the loss of the raised ridge details at the rear of the bucket.  They will now need to be replaced.

[Darklord1967]

HANDS AND A HOLSTER

This custom figure is now in the final anatomical phase of construction, and is entering the fine detail phase (which is really my favorite phase).

Tonight I worked to select a suitable set of hands for custom Boba Fett that would hold his laser rifle well, and would fit anatomically with the Imperial Scanning Crewman basic body.

I did not bother to look to any of the previous Hasbro Boba Fett figures for help since I consider virtually all of them either gorilla handed, or hook clawed.

But in my parts bin, I found a figure that I thought might be a very good hands / gloves candidate.  None other than Jango Fett himself.  


I believe this is a SAGA 1 Jango, and what I really liked about his gloved hands sculpt (besides their suitable size) is the fact that they included the folds of the fabric to really complete the look.  They will have to be painted the correct color for Boba’s gloves, of course, but I think they have very nice detail.



I took a razor to Jango’s hands and then  gradually shaved off the silver gauntlet remnants that remained on his wrist stumps.











Once the Jango hands were cleaned and prepped, I carefully sliced away the mounting pin from the Imperial Scanning Troopers hands and transferred them over to Jango’s severed mitts.






After these hands set, they will pop right into the Custom Boba’s gauntlet cuffs, and remain fully swivel articulated.



While the hands were drying, I officially turned my attention to this figure’s final fine detail phase.

I needed to outfit custom Boba with a holster for his side arm blaster.  Only 2 Hasbro Boba Fetts have  included this side holster (POTJ 300th Fett, and the most recent Legacy Collection / 2010 Vintage Collection sculpt). Both figures included the holster as a permanently molded part of the right thigh.



Once again, I let my razor do the talking.  I chose the POTJ holster for my project (because of its superior sharpness and detail )  Sliced it right off of the fodder figure, and then transferred it over (as a separate wearable accessory) to my  custom Boba Fett.

[hemble]

Mate firstly welcome aboard,

I have to say that I couldn't stop reading and looking at the pics, the tutorial is excellent and for a figure that isn't even complete itlooks brillant alraedy. The thing that I am most impressed about is all the different parts you are using to make this movie accurate.  My hat is off to you mate and look forward to more of your brillant work.

Ron

[Luke Sprywalker]

Looking great Roberto! I was hoping you were going to give him "Blasterman" style articulated hands. Have you seen them on his figures at RS? He inserts lego levers into the arm stump then dremels a small hole into the hand and you have a ball jointed hand. Your looks great don't get me wrong but the ball joints are capable of so many cool poses.

[darknsour]

WOW!!

I don't have the words to express what I think of this great figure!!


Amazing!!


Keep up the great work!!!


Thanks for posting

and welcome ...


Rich

[Darklord1967]

Looking great Roberto! I was hoping you were going to give him "Blasterman" style articulated hands. Have you seen them on his figures at RS? He inserts lego levers into the arm stump then dremels a small hole into the hand and you have a ball jointed hand. Your looks great don't get me wrong but the ball joints are capable of so many cool poses.

Reeeeeally??? Well... I'll have to look into that then, won't I? 

[Road Warrior]

Sir, you truely are a master at this.

[CaptainLux]

wooow man this is looking better and better each time I look it!

amazing work!

[Tamer]

Looks good to me.

I thought I had the right DarkLord. Those vintage box conversion looked fantastic. I would love to see a pic of all that again!

[von reinhardt]

wow! most impressive, that is a pile of work.....Now this is a custom. ...Amazing.

[Darklord1967]

COLLARS AND SLEEVES

Hoo-boy!  Tonight was about some serious, finger-aching, detail work on ol’ Custom Boba Fett.

I decided to add the correct short sleeves to Boba’s flack vest so that his shoulder bells could be placed in their final positions (attached to the sleeves).

As per my usual procedure, I began by making a paper template of the basic shape  of the sleeve, and test-fit the pattern against the shoulder of the figure.








I then used the pattern to cut the basic shape in fabric,  and then I created a fold-over finish seam on the sleeve’s edge.  Each sleeve was very carefully glued into the arm holes of the flack vest and checked for final symmetry.



















I know they were not accurate, but I really liked those two little raised details on the front of the collar armor which I fashioned from a vintage Kenner Boba Fett figure. Consequently, I was pretty sad to have to shave them off,  and sand the area smooth.




I replaced all of the armor back onto the figure, and once again checked the overall stance and attitude of ol’Boba… now with his new flack vest sleeves!

[Road Warrior]

Beautiful- even in a w.i.p. stage its already the best Boba Fett I have ever seen.

[Luke Sprywalker]

Roberto, I am just shaking my head in disbelief at how good that flack vest is and now you have added the sleeves! What glue are you useing to make the folded seams? I love your techniques and the results they produce! I am with you on the colar armor, I know the 2 small details are not accurate but they looked cool and gave a bit of detail to that piece. I guess if you are making the most screen accurate Boba ever they have to go though! Looking better than good man and have you found the info on B mans articulated wrists at RS? You will also need one of his awesome weapons for this guy!

[Darklord1967]

Roberto, I am just shaking my head in disbelief at how good that flack vest is and now you have added the sleeves! What glue are you useing to make the folded seams? I love your techniques and the results they produce! I am with you on the colar armor, I know the 2 small details are not accurate but they looked cool and gave a bit of detail to that piece. I guess if you are making the most screen accurate Boba ever they have to go though! Looking better than good man and have you found the info on B mans articulated wrists at RS? You will also need one of his awesome weapons for this guy!

Thanks a million LS!

The glue I am using to create fold-over seams (and to assemble the vest in general) is basic 3M spray mount adhesive.  Strong stuff and it works PERMANENTLY on fabrics. The only trouble is you have to wait a few seconds before you start using it on your fabric because if it is too wet it will bleed right through the cloth.  So it must be applied when it is getting thick and tacky, and you must work QUICKLY!  I apply the glue with an old worn out paint brush.

Yeah, I was really used to the two small raised details on the front of the collar armor.  Now that they're gone, it looks plain-jane to me.   I'm sure it will look a whole lot more spruced up once I paint it and add the four tiny silver fastening studs the the collar armor's center shoulder line.

Disappointing news regarding the ball wrists:  I have not spoken to BLASTERMAN, however, I was analyzing the situation directly on the figure itself, and it looks like ball-wrists will not be possible on this custom Boba.  The reason for this is the weapon wrist gauntlets: For the sake of authenticity, I've created them with a fair amount of recess in the cuff so that Boba's wrists are pretty deeply buried.  This doesn't leave much play for ball-wrist articulation.  It loks like things are pretty much going to be limited to swivel wrists.  But, you know, I'm really okay with that.  On Boba Fett's real-life costume, it looks to me like he's a little bit limited in his wrist movements anyway because of those gauntlets.